lite 


BANCROFT 
LIBRARY 

«> 

THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 


MESSAGE 


OF   THE 


PRESIDENT  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 


TRANSMITTING   TO   CONGRESS 


THE  CONSTITUTION  OF  KANSAS 


i 

FRAMED 


uY  THE  CONVENTION  ASSEMBLED  AT  lECOMPTOff, 


t.  S.    tV«C«<:enV  *  %  5~7-  IB; 


WASHINGTON 

1858 


-1VT'A2  f  0  TOITU; 


• 


BANCROFT 
LIBRARY 


MESSAGE. 


0»    To  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States  : 

I  have  received  from  J.  Calhoun,  esq.,  president  of  the  late  constitutional  convention  oi 
^  Kansas,  a  copy,  duly  certified  by  himself,  of  the  constitution  framed  by  that  body,  with  the 
expression  of  a  hope  that  I  would  submit  the  same  to  the  consideration  of  Congress,  ' '  with 
<k,  the  view  of  the  admission  of  Kansas  into  the  Union  as  an  independent  State."  In  com- 
pliance with  this  request,  I  herewith  transmit  to  Congress,  for  their  action,  the  constitution 
of  Kansas,  with  the  ordinance  respecting  the  public  lands,  as  well  as  the  letter  of  Mr.  Cal- 
houn, dated  at  Lecompton  on  the  14th  ultimo,  by  which  they  were  accompanied.  Having 
received  but  a  single  copy  "of  the  constitution  and  ordinance,  I  send  this  to  the  Senate. 
s  A  great  delusion  seems  to  pervade  the  public  mind  in  relation  to  the  condition  of  parties 
in  Kansas.  This  arises  from  the  difficulty  of  inducing  the  American  people  to  realize  the 
fact  that  any  portion  of  them  should  be  in  a  state  of  rebellion  against  the  government  under 
"  which  they  live.  When  we  speak  of  the  affairs  of  Kansas,  we  are  apt  to  refer  merely  to  the 
existence  of  two  violent  political  parties  in  that  Territory,  divided  on  the  question  of  slavery, 
£  just  as  we  speak  of  such  parties  in  the  States.  This  presents  no  adequate  idea  of  the  true 
state  of  the  case.  The  dividing  line  there  is  not  between  two  political  parties,  both  acknowl- 
edging the  lawful  existence  of  the  government,  but  between  those  who  are  loyal  to  this 
government  and  those  who  have  endeavored  to  destroy  its  existence  by  force  and  by  usurpa- 
£  tion — between  those  who  sustain  and  those  who  have  done  all  in  their  power  to  overthrow 
the  territorial  government  established  by  Congress.  This  government  they  would  long 
since  have  subverted  had  it  not  been  protected  from  their  assaults  by  the  troops  of  the 
United  States.  Such  has  been  the  condition  of  affairs  since  my  inauguration.  Ever  since 
that  period  a  large  portion  of  the  people  of  Kansas  have  been  in  a  state  of  rebellion  against 
the  government,  with  a  military  leader  at  their  head  of  a  most  turbulent  and  dangerqus 
*^  character.  They  have  never  acknowledged,  but  have  constantly  renounced  and  defied  the 
government  to  which  they  owe  allegiance,  and  have  been  all  the  time  in  a  state  of  resistance 
against  its  authority.  They  have  all  the  time  been  endeavoring  to  subvert  it  and  to  establish 
a  revolutionary  government,  under  the  so-called  Topeka  constitution,  in  its  stead.  Even  at 
this  very  moment  the  Topeka  legislature  are  in  session.  Whoever  has  read  the  correspond- 
ence of  Governor  Walker  with  the  State  Department,  recently  communicated  to  the  Senate, 
will  be  convinced  that  this  picture  is  not  overdrawn.  He  always  protested  against  the 
withdrawal  of  any  portion  of  the  military  force  of  the  ..United  States  from  the  Territory, 
deeming  its  presence  absolutely  necessary  for  the  preservation  of  the  regular  government 
and  the  execution  of  the  laws.  In  his  rery  first  despatch  to  the  Secretary  of  State,  dated 
June  2,  1857,  he  says:  "The  most  alarming  movement,  however,  proceeds  from  the 
assembling  on  the  9th  June  of  the  so-called  Topeka  legislature,  with  a  view  to  the  enact- 
ment of  an  entire  code  of  laws.  Of  course  it  will  be  my  endeavor  to  prevent. such  a  result, 
as  it  would  lead  to  inevitable  and  disastrous  collision,  and,  in  fact,  renew  the  civil  war  in 
Kansas."  This  was  with  difficulty  prevented  by  the  efforts  of  Governor  Walker  ;  but  soon 
thereafter,  on  the  14th  of  July,  we  find  him  requesting  General  Harney  to  furnish  him  a 
regiment  of  dragoons  to  proceed  to  the  city  of  Lawrence — and  this  for  the  reason  that  he 
had  received  authentic  intelligence,  verified  by  his  own  actual  observation,  that  a  dangerous 
rebellion  had  occurred,  "  involving  an  open  defiance  of  the  laws  and  the  establishment  of 
an  insurgent  government  in  that  city." 

In  the  governor's  despatch  of  July  15,  he  informs  the  Secretary  of  State  "that  this  move- 
ment at  Lawrence  was  the  beginning  of  a  plan,  originating  in  that  city,  to  organize  insurrec- 
tion throughout  the  Territory ;  and  especially  in  all  towns,  cities,  or  counties  where  the 
republican  party  have  a  majority.  Lawrence  is  the  hot  bed  of  all  the  abolition  movements 
in  this  Territory.  It  is  the  town  established  by  the  abolition  societies  of  the  east,  and  whilst 
there  are  respectable  people  there,  it  is  filled  by  a  considerable  number  of  mercenaries  who 
are  paid  by  abolition  societies  to  perpetuate  and  diffuse  agitation  throughout  Kansas,  and 
prevent  a  peaceful  settlement  of  this  question.  Having  failed  in  inducing  their  own  so- 


called  Topeka  State  legislatmpCoiiib]jg£h^  Mis  insurrection,  Lawrence  has  commenced  it 
herself,  and,  if  not  arrested,  the  rebellion  will  extend  throughout  the  Territory." 

And  again  :  "In  order  to  send  this  communication  immediately  by  mail,  I  must  close  by 
assuring  you  that  the  spirit  of  rebellion  pervades  the  great  mass  of  the  republican  party  of 
this  Territory,  instigated,  as  I  entertain  no  doubt  they  are,  by  eastern  societies,  having  in 
view  results  most  disastrous  to  the  government  and  to  the  Union  ;  and  that  the  continued 
presence  of  General  Harney  here  is  indispensable,  as  originally  stipulated  by  me,  with  a 
large  body  of  dragoons  and  several  batteries." 

On  the  20th  July,  1857,  General  Lane,  under  the  authority  of  the  Topeka  convention, 
undertook,  as  Governor  Walker  informs  us,  ' '  to  organize  the  whole  so-called  free-State 
party  into  volunteers,  and  to  take  the  names  of  all  who  refuse  enrolment.  The  professed 
object  is  to  protect  the  polls,  at  the  election  in  August,  of  the  new  insurgent  Topeka  State 
legislature. ' ' 

"The  object  of  taking  the  names  of  all  who  refuse  enrolment  is  to  terrify  the  free-State 
conservatives  into  submission.  This  is  proved  by  recent  atrocities  committed  on  such  men 
by  Topekaites.  The  speedy  location  of  large  bodies  of  regular  troops  here,  with  two  bat- 
teries, is  necessary.  The  Lawrence  insurgents  await  the  development  of  this  new  revolu- 
tionary military  organization,"  &c.,  &c. 

In  the  governor's  despatch  of  July  27th,  he  says  that  "  General  Lane  and  his  staff  every- 
where deny  the  authority  of  the  territorial  laws,  and  counsel  a  total  disregard  of  these 
enactments. ' ' 

Without  making  further  quotations  of  a  similar  character  from  other  despatches  of 
Governor  Walker,  it  appears  by  a  reference  to  Mr.  Stanton's  communication  to  General 
Cass,  of  the  9th  of  December  last,  that  the  "important  step  of  calling  the  legislature 
together  was  taken  after  I  [he]  had  become  satisfied  that  the  election  ordered  by  the  con- 
vention on  the  21st  instant  could  not  be  conducted  without  collision  and  bloodshed."  So 
intense  was  the  disloyal  feeling  among  the  enemies  of  the  government  established  by  Con- 
gress, that  an  election  which  afforded  them  an  opportunity,  if  in  the  majority,  of  making 
Kansas  a  free  State,  according  to  their  own  professed  desire,  could  not  be  conducted  without 
collision  and  bloodshed  ! 

The  truth  is,  that,  up  till  the  present  moment,  the  enemies  of  the  existing  government  still 
adhere  to  their  Topeka  revolutionary  constitution  and  government.  The  very  first  para- 
graph of  the  message  of  Governor  Kobinson,  dated  on  the  7th  of  December,  to  the  Topeka 
legislature,  now  assembled  at  Lawrence,  contains  an  open  defiance  of  the  Constitution  and 
laws  of  the  United  States.  The  governor  says  :  "The  convention  which  framed  the  con- 
stitution at  Topeka  originated  with  the  people  of  Kansas  Territory.  They  have  adopted 
and  ratified  the  same  twice  by  a  direct  vote,  and  also  indirectly  through  two  elections  of 
State  officers  and  members  of  the  State  legislature.  Yet  it  has  pleased  the  administration 
to  regard  the  whole  proceeding  revolutionary . "  , 

This  Topeka  government,  adhered  to  with  such  treasonable  pertinacity,  is  a  government 
in  direct  opposition  to  the  existing  government  prescribed  and  recognized  by  Congress.  It 
is  a  usurpation  of  the  same  character  as  it  would  be  for  a  portion  of  the  people  of  any  State 
of  the  Union  to  undertake  to  establish  a  separate  government,  within  its  limits,  for  the  purpose 
of  redressing  any  grievance,  real  or  imaginary,  of  which  they  might  complain,  against  the 
legitimate  State  government.  Such  a  principle,  if  carried  into  execution,  would  destroy 
all  lawful  authority  and  produce  universal  anarchy. 

From  this  statement  of  facts,  the  reason  becomes  palpable  why  the  enemies  of  the  gov- 
ernment authorized  by  Congress  have  refused  to  vote  for  delegates  to  the  Kansas  constitu- 
tional convention,  and  also  afterwards  on  the  question  of  slavery  submitted  by  it  to  the 
people.  It  is  because  they  have  ever  refused  to  sanction  or  recognize  any  other  constitution 
than  that  framed  at  Topeka. 

Had  the  whole  Lecompton  constitution  been  submitted  to  the  people,  the  adherents  ot 
this  organization  would  doubtless  have  voted  against  it,  because,  if  successful,  they  would 
thus  have  removed  an  obstacle  out  of  the  way  of  their  own  revolutionary  constitution. 
They  would  have  done  this,  not  upon  a  consideration  of  the  merits  of  the  whole  or  any 
part  of  the  Lecornpton  constitution,  but  simply  because  they  have  ever  resisted  the  authority 
of  the  government  authorized  by  Congress,  from  which  it  emanated. 

Such  being  the  unfortunate  condition  of  affairs  in  the  Territory,  what  was  the  right,  as 
well  as  the  duty,  of  the  law-abiding  people  ?  Were  they  silently  and  patiently  to  submit 
to  the  Topeka  usurpation,  or  adopt  the  necessary  measures  to  establish  a  constitution  under 
the  authority  of  the. organic  law  of  Congress? 

That  this  law  recognized  the  right  of  the  people  of  the  Territory,  without  any  enabling 
act  from  Congress,  to  form  a  State  constitution,  is  too  clear  for  argument.  For  Congress 
"to  leave  the  people  of  the  Territory  perfectly  free,"  in  framing  their  constitution,  "to 
form  and  regulate  their  domestic  institutions  in  their  own  way,  subject  only  to  the  Constitu- 


tion  of  the  United  States,"  and  then  to  say  that  they  shall  not  be  permitted  to  proceed 
and  frame  a  constitution  in  their  own  way,  without  an  express  authority  from  Congress, 
appears  to  be  almost  a  contradiction  in  terms.  It  would  he  much  more  plausible  to  contend 
that  Congress  had  no  power  to  pass  such  an  enabling  act,  than  to  argue  that  the  people  of 
a  Territory  might  be  kept  out  of  the  Union  for  an  indefinite  period,  and  until  it  might 
please  Congress  to  permit  them  to  exercise  the  right  of  self-government.  This  would  be  to 
adopt  not  "  their  own  way,"  but  the  way  which  Congress  might  prescribe. 

It  is  impossible  that  any  people  could  have  proceeded  with  more  regularity  in -the  for- 
mation of  a  constitution  than  the  people  of  Kansas  have  done.  It  was  necessary,  first,  to 
ascertain  whether  it  was  the  desire  of  the  people  to  be  relieved  from  their  territorial  depen- 
dence and  establish  a  State  government.  For  this  purpose  the  territorial  legislature,  in 
1855,  passed  a  law  "  for  taking  the  sense  of  the  people  of  this  Territory  upon  the  expediency 
of  calling  a  convention  to  form  a  State  constitution' '  at  the  general  election  to  be  held  in 
October,  1856.  The  "sense  of  the  people"  was  accordingly  taken,  and  they  decided  in 
favor  of  a  convention.  It  is  true  that  at  this  election  the  enemies  of  the  territorial  govern- 
ment did  not  rote,  because  they  were  then  engaged  at  Topeka,  without  the  slightest  pretext 
of  lawful  authority,  in  framing  a  constitution  of  their  own  for  the  purpose  of  subverting  the 
territorial  government. 

In  pursuance  of  this  decision  of  the  people  in  favor  of  a  convention,  the  territorial  legis- 
lature, on  the  27th  day  of  February,  1857,  passed  an  act  for  the  election  of  delegates 
on  the.  third  Monday  of  June,  1857,  to  frame  a  State  constitution.  This  law  is  as  fair  in  its 
provisions  as  any  that  ever  passed  a  legislative  body  for  a  similar  purpose.  The  right  of 
suffrage  at  this  election  is  clearly  and  justly  defined.  "Every  bona  fide  inhabitant  of  the 
Territory  of  Kansas"  on  the  third  Monday  of  June,  the  day  of  the  election,  who  was  a  cit- 
izen of  the  United  States  above  the  age  of  twenty-one,  and  had  resided  therein  for  three 
months  previous  to  that  date,  was  entitled  to  vote.  In  order  to  avoid  all  interference  from 
neighboring  States  or  Territories  with  the  freedom  and  fairness  of  the  election,  provision 
was  mad/ for  the  registry  of  the  qualified  voters  ;  and,  hi  pursuance  thereof,  nine  thousand 
two  hundred  and  fifty-one  voters  were  registered.  Governor  Walker  did  his  whole  duty  in 
urging  all  tke  qualified  citizens  of  Kansas  to  vote  at  this  election.  In  his  inaugural  address, 
on  the  27th  May  last,  he  informed  them  that  ' '  under  our  practice  the  preliminary  act  of 
framing  a  State  constitution  is  uniformly  performed  through  the  instrumentality  of  a  con- 
vention .of  delegates  chosen  by  the  people  themselves.  That  convention  is  now  about  to  be 
elected  by  you  under  the  call  of  the  territorial  legislature.,  created  and  still  recognized  by 
the  authority  of  Congress,  and  clothed  by  it,  in  the  comprehensive  language  of  the  organic 
law,  with  full  power  to  make  such  an  enactment.  The  territorial  legislature,  then,  in  as- 
sembling this  convention,  were  fully  sustained  by  the  act  of  Congress,  and  the  authority  of 
the  convention  is  distinctly  recognized  in  my  instructions  from  the  President  of  the.  United 
States." 

The  governor 'also  clearly  and  distinctly  warns  them  what  would  be  the  consequences  if 
they  should  not  participate  in  the  election.  "The  people  of  Kansas,  then,  (he  says,)  are  in- 
vited by  the  highest  authority  known  to  the  Constitution,  to  participate,  freely  and  fairly, 
in  the  election  of  delegates  to  frame  a  constitution  and  State  government.  The  law  has 
performed  its  entire  appropriate  function  when  it  extends  to  the  people  the  right  of  suffrage, 
but  it  cannot  compel  the  performance  of  that  duty.  Throughout  our  whole  Union,  how- 
ever, and  wherever  free  government  prevails,  those  who  abstain  from  the  exercise  of  the  right 
of  suffrage  authorize  those  who  do  vote  to  act  for  them  in  that  contingency  ;  and  the  absentees 
are  as  much  bound,  under  the  law  and  Constitution,  where  there  is  no  fraud  or  violence,  by 
the  act  of  the  majority  of  those  who  do  vote,  as  if  all  had  participated  in  the  election.  Other- 
wise, as  voting  must  be  voluntary,  self-government  would  be  impracticable,  and  monarchy 
or  despotism  would  remain  as  the  only  alternative." 

It  may  also  be  observed,  that  at  this  period  any  hope,  if  such  had  existed,  that  the  Topeka 
constitution  would  ever  be  recognized  by  Congress,  must  have  been  abandoned.  Congress 
had  adjourned  on  the  3d  March  previous,  having  recognized  the  legal  existence  of  the  ter- 
ritorial legislature  in  a  variety  of  forms,  which  I  need  not  enumerate.  Indeed,  the  delegate 
elected  to  the  House  of  Representatives,  under  a  territorial  law,  had  been  admitted  to  his 
seat,  and  had  just  completed  his  term  of  service  on  the  day  previous  to  my  inauguration. 

This  was  the  propitious  moment  for  settling  all  difficulties  in  Kansas.  This  was  the  time 
for  abandoning  the  revolutionary  Topeka  organization,  and  for  the  enemies  of  the  existing 
government  to  conform  to  the  laws,  and  to  unite  with  its  friends  in  framing  a  State  con- 
stitution. But  this  they  refused  to  do,  and  the  consequences  of  their  refusal  to  submit  to 
lawful  authority  and  vote  at  the  election  of  delegates  may  yet  prove  to  be  of  a  most  de- 
plorable character.  Would  that  the  respect  for  the  laws  of  the  land  which  so  eminently 
distinguished  the  men  of  the  past  generation  could  be  revived  !  It  is  a  disregard  and  vio- 
lation of  law  which 'have  for  years  kept  the  Territory  of  Kansas  in  a  state  of  almost  open  re- 


BANCROFT 


bellion  against  its  government.  It  is  the  same  spirit  which  has  produced  actual  rebellion  in 
Utah.  Our  only  safety  consists  in  obedience  and  conformity  to  law.  Should  a  general 
spirit  against  its  enforcement  prevail,  this  will  prove  fatal  to  us  as  a  nation.  We  ac- 
knowledge no  master  but  the  law  ;  and  should  we  cut  loose  from  its  restraints,  and  every  one 
do  what  seemeth  good  in  his  own  eyes,  our  case  will  indeed  be  hopeless. 

The  enemies  of  the  territorial  government  determined  still  to  resist  the  authority  of  Con- 
gress. They  refused  to  vote  for  delegates  lo  the  convention,  not  because,  from  circumstances 
which  I  need  not  detail,  there  was  an  omission  to  register  the  comparatively  few  voters  who 
were  inhabitants  of  certain  counties  of  Kansas  in  the  early  spring  of  1857,  but  because 
they  had  predetermined,  at  all  hazards,  to  adhere  to  their  revolutionary  organization,  and 
defeat  the  establishment  of  any  other  constitution  than  that  which  they  had  framed  at 
Topeka.  The  election  was,  therefore,  suffered  to  pass  by  default ;  but  of  this  result  the 
qualified  electors  who  refused  to  vote  can  never  justly  complain. 

From  this  review,  it  is  manifest  that  the  Lecompton  convention,  according  to  every 
principle  of  constitutional  law,  was  legally  constituted  and  was  invested  with  power  to 
frame  a  constitution. 

The  sacred  principle  of  popular  sovereignty  has  been  invoked  in  favor  of  the  enemies  of 
law  and  order  in  Kansas.  But  in  what  manner  is  popular  sovereignty  to  be  exercised  in 
this  country,  if  not  through  the  instrumentality  of  established  law?  In  certain  small 
republics  of  ancient  times  the  people  did  assemble  in  primary  meetings,  passed  laws, 
and  directed  public  aftairs.  In  our  country  this  is  manifestly  impossible.  Popular  sov- 
ereignty can  be  exercised  here  only  through  the  ballot-box ;  and  if  the  people  will  refuse  to 
exercise  it  in  this  manner,  as  they  have  done  in  Kansas  at  the  election  of  delegates,  it  is 
not  for  them  to  complain  that  their  rights  have  been  violated. 

The  Kansas  convention,  thus  lawfully  constituted,  proceeded  to  frame  a  constitution,  and, 
having  completed  their  work,  finally  adjourned  on  the  7th  day  of  November  last.  They 
did  not  think  proper  to  submit  the  whole  of  this  constitution  to  a  popular  vote,  but  they 
did  submit  the  question  whether  Kansas  should  be  a  free  or  a  slave  State  to  tihe  people. 
This  was  the  question  which  had  convulsed  the  Union  and  shaken  it  to  its  very  centre. 
This  was  the  question  which  had  lighted  up  the  flames  of  civil  war  in  Kansas,  and  had 
produced  dangerous  sectional  parties  throughout  the  confederacy.  It  was  of  a  character  so 
paramount  in  respect  to  the  condition  of  Kansas  as  to  rivet  the  anxious  attention  of  the 
people  of  the  whole  country  upon  it,  and  it  alone.  No  person  thought  of  any  other  question. 
For  my  own  part,  when  I  instructed  Governor  Walker  in  general  terms,  in  favor  of  sub- 
mitting the  constitution  to  the  p*eople,  I  had  no  object  in  view  except  the  all-absorbing 
question  of  slavery.  In  what  manner  the  people  of  Kansas  might  regulate  their  other 
concerns  was  not  a  subject  which  attracted  any  attention.  In  fact,  the  general  provisions 
of  our  recent  State  constitutions,  after  an  experience  of  eight  years,  are  so  similar  and  so 
excellent  that  it  would  be  difficult  to  go  far  wrong  at  the  present  day  in  framing  a  new 
constitution. 

I  then  believed,  and  still  believe,  that,  under  the  organic  act,  the  Kansas  convention 
were  bound  to  submit  this  all-important  question  of  slavery  to  the  people.  It  was  never, 
however,  my  opinion  that,  independently  of  this  act,  they  would  have  been  bound  to 
submit  any  portion  of  the  constitution  to  a  popular  vote,  in  order  to  give  it  validity.  Had 
I  entertained  such  an  opinion,  this  would  have  been  in  opposition  to  many  precedents  in  our 
history,  commencing  in  the  very  best  age  of  the  republic.  It  would  have  been  in  opposi- 
tion to  the  principle  which  pervades  our  institutions,  and  which  is  every  day  carried  out  into 
practice,  that  the  people  have  the  right  to  delegate  to  representatives,  chosen  by  themselves, 
their  sovereign  power  to  frame  constitutions,  enact  laws,  and  perform  many  other  impor- 
tant acts,  without  requiring  that  these  should  be  subjected  to  their  subsequent  approbation. 
It  would  be  a  most  inconvenient  limitation  of  their  own  power,  imposed  by  the  people  upon 
themselves,  to  exclude  them  from  exercising  their  sovereignty  in  any  lawful  manner  they 
think  proper.  It  is  true  that  the  people  of  Kansas  might,  if  they  had  pleased,  have  re- 
quired the  convention  to  submit  the  constitution  to  a  popular  vote  ;  but  this  they  have  not 
done.  The  only  remedy,  therefore,  in  this  case,  is  that  which  exists  in  all  other  similar 
cases.  If  the  delegates  who  framed  the  Kansas  constitution  have  in  any  manner  violated 
the  will  of  their  constituents,  the  people  always  possess  the  power  to  change  their  constitu- 
tion or  their  laws,  according  to  their  own  pleasure. 

The  question  of  slavery  wTas  submitted  to  an  election  of  the  people  of  Kansas  on  the  21st 
of  December  last,  in  obedience  to  the  mandate  of  the  Constitution.  Here,  again, -a  fair 
opportunity  was  presented  to  the  adherents  of 'the  Topeka  constitution,  if  they  were  the 
majority,  to  decide  this  exciting  question  "  in  their  own  way,"  and  thus  restore  peace  to  the 
distracted  Territory  ;  but  they  again  refused  to  exercise'their  right  of  popular  sovereignty, 
and  again  suffered  the  election  to  pass  by  default. 

I  heartily  rejoice  that  a  wiser  and  better  spirit  prevailed  among  a  large  majority  of  these 


people  on  the  first  Monday  of  January  ;  and  that  they  did,  on  that  day,  vote  under  the 
Lecompton  constitution  for  a  governor  and  other  State  officers,  a  member  of  Congress,  and 
for  members  of  the  legislature.  This  election  was  warmly  contested  by  the  parties,  and  a 
larger  vote  was  polled  than  at  any  previous  election  in  the  Territory.  We  may  now  reason- 
ably hope  that  the  revolutionary  Topeka  organization  will  be  speedily  and  finally  abandoned, 
and  this  will  go  far  towards  the  final  settlement  of  the  unhappy  differences  in  Kansas.  If 
frauds  hare  been  committed  at  this  election,  either  by  one  or  both  parties,  the  legislature 
and  the  people  of  Kansas,  under  their  constitution,  will  know  how  to  redress  themselves 
and  punish  these  detestable  but  too  common  crimes  without  any  outside  interference. 

The  people  of  Kansas  have,  then,  "  in  their  own  way,"  and  in  strict  accordance  with  the 
organic  act,  framed  a  constitution  and  State  government ;  'have  submitted  the  all-important 
question  of  slavery  to  the  people,  and  have  elected  a  governor,  a  member  to  represent  them 
in  Congress,  members  of  the  State  legislature,  and  other  State  officers.  They  now  ask  ad- 
mission into  the  Union  under  this  constitution,  which  is  republican  in  its  form.  It  is  for 
Congress  to  decide  whether  they  will  admit  or  reject  the  State  which  has  thus  been  created. 
For  my  own  part,  I  am  decidedly  in  favor  of  its  admission,  and  thus  terminating  the  Kan- 
sas question.  This  will  carry  out  the  great  principle  of  non-intervention  recognized  and 
sanctioned  by  the  organic  act,  which  declares  in  express  language  in  favor  of  "  non-inter- 
vention by  Congress  with  slavery  in  the  States  or  Territories,"  leaving  "  the  people  thereof 
perfectly  free  to  form  and  regulate  their  domestic  institutions  in  their  own  way,  subject  only 
to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States."  In  this  manner,  by  localizing  the  question  of 
slavery,  and  confining  it  to  the  people  whom  it  immediately  concerned,  every  patriot 
anxiously  expected  that  this  question  would  be  banished  from  the  halls  of  Congress,  where 
it  has  always  exerted  a  baneful  influence  throughout  the  whole  country. 

It  is  proper  that  I  should  briefly  refer  to  the  election  held  under  an  act  of  the  territorial 
legislature,  on  the  first  Monday  of  January  last,  on  the  Lecompton  constitution.  -This 
election  was  held  after  the  Territory  had  been  prepared*  for  admission  into  the  Union  as  a 
sovereign  State,  and  when  no  authority  existed  in  the  territorial  legislature  which  could 
possibly  destroy  its  existence  or  change  its  character.  The  election,  which  was  peaceably 
conducted  under  my  instructions,  involved  a  strange  inconsistency.  A  large  majority  of 
the  persons  who  voted  against  the  Lecompton  constitution  were  at  the  very  same  time  and 
place  recognizing  ite  valid  existence  hi  the  most  solemn  and  authentic  manner,  by  voting 
under  its  provisions.  I  have  yet  received  ,no  official  information  of  the  result  of  this 
election. 

As  a  question  of  expediency,  after  the  right  has  been  maintained,  it  may  be  wise  to  reflect 
upon  the  benefits  to  Kansas  and  to  the  whole  country  which  would  result  from  its  immediate 
admission  into  the  Union,  as  well  as  the  disasters  which  may  follow  its  rejection.  Domestic 
peace  will  be  the  happy  consequence  of  its  admission,  and  that  fine  Territory,  which  has  hither- 
to been  torn  by  dissensions,  will  rapidly  increase  in  population  and  wealth,  and  speedily 
realize  the  blessings  and  the  comforts  which  follow  in  the  train  of  agricultural  and 
mechanical  industry.  The  people  will  then  be  sovereign,  and  can  regulate  their  own  affairs 
in  their  own  way.  If  a. majority  of  them  desire  to  abolish  domestic  slavery  within  the 
State,  there  is  no  other  possible  mode  by  which  this  can  be  effected  so  speedily  as  by  prompt 
admission.  The  will  of  the  majority  is  supreme  and  irresistible  when  expressed  in  an  or- 
derly and  lawful  manner.  They  can  make  and  unmake  constitutions  at  pleasure.  It  would 
be  absurd  to  say  that  they  can  impose  fetters  upon  their  own  power  which  they  cannot 
afterwards  remove.  If  they  could  do  this,  they  might  tie  their  own  hands  for  a  hundred 
as  well  as  for  ten  years.  These  are  fundamental  principles  of  American  freedom,  and  are 
recognized,  I  believe,  in  some  form  or  other,  by  every  State  constitution  ;  and  if  Congress, 
in  the  act  of  admission,  should  think  proper  to  recognize  them,  I  can  perceive  no  objection 
to  such  a  course.  This  has  been  done  emphatically  in  the  constitution  of  Kansas.  It  de- 
clares in  the  bill  of  rights  that  ' '  all  political  power  is  inherent  in  the  people,  and  all  free 
governments  are  founded  on  their  authority  and  instituted  for  their  benefit,  and  therefore 
they  have  at  all  times  an  inalienable  and  indefeasible  right  to  alter,  reform,  or  abolish  their 
form  of  government  in  such  manner  as  they  may  think  proper."  The  great  State  of  New 
York,*is  at  this  moment  governed  under  a  constitution  framed  and  established  in  direct  op- 
position to  the  mode  prescribed  by  the  previous  constitution.  If,  therefore,  the  provision 
changing  the  Kansas  constitution,  after  the  year  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty-four, 
could  by  possibility  be  construed  into  a  prohibition  to  make  such  a  change  previous  to  that 
period,  this  prohibition  would  be  wholly,  unavailing.  The  legislature  already  elected  may, 
at  its  very  first  session,  submit  the  question  to  a  vote  of  the  people  whether  they  will  or  will 
not  have  a  convention  to  amend  their  constitution  and  adopt  all  necessary  means  for  giving 
cSect  to  the  popular  will. 

It  has  been  solemnly  .-adjudged  by  the  highest  judicial  tribunal  known  to  our  laws,  that 
slavery  exists  in  Kansas  by  virtue  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.     Kansas  is, 


8 

therefore,  at  this  moment  as  much  a  slave  State  as  Georgia  or  South  Carolina  Without 
this,  the  equality  of  the  sovereign  States  composing  the  Union  would  be  violated,  and 
the  use  and  enjoyment  of  a  Territory  acquired  by  the  common  treasure  of  all  the  States 
would  be  closed  against  the  people  and  the  property  of  nearly  half  the  members  of  the 
confederacy.  Slavery  can  therefore  never  be  prohibited  in  Kansas  except  by  means  of  a 
constitutional  provision,  and  in  no  other  manner  can  this  be  obtained  so  prqmptly,  if  a 
majority  of  the  people  desire  it,  as  by  admitting  it  into  the  Union  under  its  present  consti- 
tution. 

On  the  other  hand,  should  Congress  reject  the  constitution,  under  the  idea  of  affording 
the  disaffected  in  Kansas  a  third  opportunity  of  prohibiting  slavery  in  the  State,  which 
they  might  have  done  twice  before  if  in  the  majority,  no  man  can  foretell  the  consequences. 

If  Congress,  for  the  sake  of  those  men  who  refused  to  vote  for  delegates  to  the  conven- 
tion when  they  might  have  excluded  slavery  from  the  constitution,  and  who  afterwards 
refused  to  vote  on  the  21st  December  last,  when  they  might,  as  they  claim,  have  stricken 
slavery  from  the  constitution,  should  now  reject  the  State  because  slavery  remains  in  the 
constitution,  it  is  manifest  that  the  agitation  upon  this  dangerous  subject  will  be  renewed 
in  a  more  alarming  form  than  it  has  ever  yet  assumed. 

Every  patriot  in  the  country  had  indulged  the  hope  that  the  Kansas  and  Nebraska  act 
would  put  a  final  end  to  the  slavery  agitation,  at  least  in  Congress,  which  had  for  more 
than  twenty  years  convulsed  the  country  and  endangered  the  Union.  This  act  involved 
great  and  fundamental  principles,  and  if  fairly  carried  into  effect  will  settle  the  question. 
Should  the  agitation  be  again  revived,  should  the  people  of  the  sister  States  be  again 
estranged  from  each  other  with  more  than  their  former  bitterness,  this  will  arise  from  a 
cause,  so  far  as  the  interest  of  Kansas  are  concerned,  more  trifling  and  insignificant  than 
has  ever  stirred  the  elements  of  a  great  people  into  commotion.  To  the  people  of  Kansas, 
the  only  practical  difference  between  admission  or  rejection  depends  simply  upon  the  fact 
whether  they  can  themselves  more  speedily  change  the  present  constitution  if  it  does  not 
accord  with  the  will  of  the  majority,  or  frame  a  second  constitution  to  be  submitted  to 
Congress  hereafter.  Even  if  this  were  a  question  of  mere  expediency,  and  not  of  right, 
the  small  difference  of  time,  one  way  or  the  other,  is  of  not  the  least  importance,  when 
contrasted  with  the  evils  which  must  necessarily  result  to  the  whole  country  from  a  revival 
of  the  slavery  agitation. 

In  considering  this  question,  it  should  never  be  forgotten  that,  in  proportion  to  its 
insignificance,  let  the  decision  be  what  it  may,  so  far  as  it  may  affect  the  few  thousand 
inhabitants  of  Kansas,  who  have  from  the  beginning  resisted  the  constitution  and  the  laws, 
for  this  very  reason  the  rejection  of  the  constitution  will  be  so  much  the  more  keenly  felt 
by  the  people  of  fourteen  of  the  States  of  this  Union,  where  slavery  is  recognized  under  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States. 

Again  :  The  speedy  admission  of  Kansas  into  the  Union  would  restore  peace  and  quiet  to 
the  whole  country.  Already  the  affairs  of  this  Territory  have  engrossed  an  undue  propor- 
tion of  public  attention.  They  have  sadly  affected  the  friendly  relations  of  the  people  of 
the  States  with  each  other,  and  alarmed  the  fears  of  patriots  for  the  safety  of  the  Union. 
Kansas  once  admitted  into  the  Union,  the  excitement  becomes  localized,  and  will  soon  die 
away  for  want  of  outside  aliment.  Then  every  difficulty  will  be  settled  at  the  ballot-box. 
•  Besides — and  this  is  no  trifling  consideration — I  shall  then  be  enabled  to  withdraw  the 
troops  of  the  United  States  from  Kansas,  and  employ  them  on  branches  of  service  where 
they  are  much  needed.  They  have  been  kept  there,  on  the  earnest-  importunity  of  Gov- 
ernor Walker,  to  maintain  the  existence  of  the  territorial  government  and  secure  the 
execution  of  the  laws.  He  considered  that  at  least  two  thousand  regular  troops,  under  the 
command  of  General  Harney,  were  necessary  for  this  purpose.  Acting  upon  his  reliable 
information,  I  have  been  obliged,  in  some  degree,  to  interfere  with  the  expedition  to  ' 
Utah,  in  order  to  keep  down  rebellion  in  Kansas.  This  has  involved  a  very  heavy  expense 
to  the  government.  Kansas  once  admitted,  it  is  believed  there  will  no  longer  be  any 
occasion  there  for  troops  of  the  Uaito*  States. 

I  have  thus  performed  my  duty  on  this  important  question,  under  a  deep  sense  of  respon- 
sibility to  God  and  my  country.  My  public  life  will  terminate  within  a  brief  period  •  and 
I  have  no  other  object  of  earthly  ambition  than  to  leave  my  country  in  a  peaceful  and 
prosperous  condition,  and  to  live  in  the  affections  and  respect  of  my  countrymen.  The 
dark  and  ominous  clouds  which  now  appear  to  be  impending  over  the  Union,  I  conscien- 
tiously believe  may  be  dissipated  with  honor  to  every  portion  of  it  by  the  admission  of 
Kansas  during  the  present  session  of  Congress  ;  whereas,  if  she  should  be  rejected,  I  grea,tly 
fear  these  clouds  will  become  darker  and  more  ominous  tkan  any  which  have  ever  yet 
threatened  the  Constitution  and  the  Union. 

JAMES  BUCHANAN. 

WASHINGTON,  February  2,  1858. 


